Rivalry Romance! - RolaYume Fanfiction
by SmallUniverse
Summary: Rola Sakuraba, Yume Nijino have ambitions to be very top of the school. But only really one of them can be on top of all. Though, is competition all they want of each other?
1. Chapter 1 - Press start!

"Smile wide! Stand up straight and work hard!"

My mum called out to me, reminding me of what I should do.

I smile to myself, running towards the general direction of my new high school, Four Stars High: a _very_ prestigious musical school I had the honour of joining(courtesy of my mum and dad, a famous pianist and violinist).

My family and close family friends have high hopes for me, especially myself! I gotta on top!

I just know I will be!

* * *

I sit down on my chair, listening to welcoming ceremony. My ears drown out the usual _'Welcome to School... I would like you all to think of the kind of year you'd like to lead here... Congratulations on getting a spot at this prestigious school... If you're here, you're here because of your talent' -_ stuff I'll be hearing a lot more of in the future. My attention is drawn to some movement I can see in the corner of my eye.

Someone was shuffling? Still is shuffling, I mean. They're doing something else now- No, they're still shuffling. I can't take it anymore! I'm going to look at whoever is doing that!

As the upperclassmen starts to strut onto the stage, I turn my head slightly to look at the person causing the disturbance during the ceremony.

Her hair is orange? No, blonde... with a pink ombre coming towards the ends, tied in curled pigtails at the sides of her head. The girl's hair was also adorned with a cute pink ribbon a little bit off to the side. Her eyes were more of an orangey colour which complimented her hair as it was-

I throw my thoughts into the _(mental) _bin as my eyes catch her's. Both of us have the same kind of reaction - eyes widened, breath hitched and a sudden need to look away.

"Hello! I am Shirogane Hime. I am a third year of the school currently and I can just say this...", she takes a breath in, making eye contact with me then moving her soft gaze upon the other girl too, "I have high hopes for you in this school. Many graduate from this school a fully bloomed flower and if not, a beautiful, growing one."

The students start looking around, taking in what she had said. I, of course, knew that already but this time, her saying it felt different.

Even as she was leaving the microphone, she gave me and the blonde haired girl a look... of hope? I wonder...

"Thank you, Shirogane Hime. This amazing student will also observe and assist your studies in some of your classes.", the teacher narrows her gaze, looking over a select few in the crowd, "The ones with students we anticipate a hopeful career for."

A smile on my face widens and as mine does, I look over at the girl and her smile does as well.

Despite my confidence in my work and effort so far in my life, I scowl to myself. Her smile of confidence and her glowing vibe of passion feels threatening... Something about it feels scary.

Slowly, the volume in the room rises as the students start to mumble around in uncertainty. Though no words fall from my mouth as I had nothing to be uncertain of. I had full confidence in my skill and practice so I wasn't very nervous for my lessons.

My eyes, again, look towards the girl, who was happily chatting away with a girl next to her. I couldn't see or hear the girl but one thing was clear:

This girl was gonna threaten my chances of being on top.

Her eyes fall upon mine again and we both hold eye-contact for quite a while, at least, longer than the last time we had some kind of quick-draw staring contest. We both look away at the same time, looking toward the stage again but the words from the rest of the ceremony remained blocked out for me... and for her I imagine.

I tried my best to keep my eyes forward and back straight to maintain my mature vibe coming from me _('Body language is important!' - my mum)._

* * *

I walk out of the hall, sighing, crossing my arms. Quickly, I shift my eyes around for the girl but I was too late. Most of the crowd had already dispersed along with her and her friend so instead I just trudge on to my assigned class.

...

As I walk on, my eyes soon spot my classroom... full and bustling already with life. I was not aware of how slow I had been to get there! I move along the wall outside, making sure to avoid the windows to avoid unneeded attention.

Finally, I get to a more secluded part of the room... where the girl coincidentally is.

It's okay... I can just... ask...

I gulp down, wishing for luck as I raise my fist to the window and gently knock against it for her ears only. Luckily, her attention is drawn to my knocking and her eyes seem to glimmer with familiarity as she sees my troubled expression.

Without even a single spoken, the girl hastily looks around for an opportunity to drag me in. Then, quickly, she does.

Her palm pushed against the window, pushing it enough for me to fit in. I throw my arms in, draping it over the window's border to pull myself up to get in; she helps too - gripping at my upper arms, and in return I gripped on her too, pulling myself in quickly. Thankfully, she pulled me quick enough for no one to notice my entrance. Whenever someone glanced at me, they assumed I was already in anyway.

I heave out a heavy sigh of relief, one of my hands still gripping at her sleeve.

"Uhm...", she looks at me. Not down or up. She seemed to be exactly the same height as me.

I look back at her afterwards, shaking my tense, stiff muscles from dragging myself in. Taking a breath in, I smile with full confidence, "I'm Sakuraba Rola. Nice to meet you."

She narrows her gaze, seemingly nervous but as I tug at her sleeve - she seems to loosen up. She also then takes a breath in, beaming, "Not even a thanks? Wow. I'm Nijino Yume. Nice to meet you."

Taken slightly aback with her newfound boldness, I chuckle, raising my hand to my mouth to suppress the noise, "... Fine, I'm not really a _'thanker'_ but..."

I draw a breath in and slide my hand down to Yume's hand and hold it, squeezing it gently, "Thank you, **Yume.**"

She looks off to the side, using her other hand to scratch her head. "You're welcome...", she says with more of a confident tone, **"Rola."**

We didn't have to say anything but the shared determined look in her and my eyes said everything I wanted to say (and what she wanted to say).

_**'I'm going to be the number one student** **here!' **_


	2. Chapter 2 - Competition

"She did pretty well, ey Yume?"

"Yeah but...", Yume mumbles under her breath with a smirk plastered on her face as she looks slightly off to the side, scratching at her neck. She then raises her head, eyes glimmering suddenly as she turns to me fully.

"Wanna have a competition?"

* * *

The teacher stalks around the room, eyeing up every single person warming up their voices for the class. She does this a couple of times until stopping at a certain another girl in the class; A girl with vermillion hair, long and straight bangs with a cat-like face (if... that makes sense?) stared up at the teacher who nodded approvingly to her voice. She smiles, widely.

In light of this, I take a deep breath and try to pitch my vocal warm-up to garner attention to myself. This works as the teacher rotates her head towards me and gives the same nod of approval too.

The girl annoyingly looks over in my general direction, scowling at my obvious superiority.

"Ahem...", Yume fakes a cough, catching my attention straight away, "You do know this only a vocal practice for now? Not the actual class yet?" She raises a brow, fiddling with her clothing.

I smirk, readjusting my pose to give off confidence, "What? You can never go too far with effort. Besiiiiides, presentation is important whether or not it's for an important occasion." Looking up, Yume's eyes seem to shine more with wonder and what I'm presuming is admiration.

She giggles a little, shutting her eyes from the wideness of her grin, "Wow, Rola, you must've had one heck of a teacher!" Her eyelids reopen, grinning still but not as wide. Gently, she brushes her bangs out of the way of her face to take a good look at me and that we did to each other for a while, forgetting about the vocal warm-ups.

I swallow down hard, choking and spluttering from my saliva. It doesn't take long for Yume's grin to turn into worry for me.

"Are you okay?!", Yume rubs on my back as my coughing slowly dies down. I stay silent for a minute, leaving her hand on my back for a while until she got conscious of it. "Ah, sorry-!"

"I'm fine - don't worry - I just choked on my saliva for a bit.", Yume makes this kind of 'blegh' face at me and I laugh off the situation, straightening up. Her hand lingered on my back until the teacher spoke again.

"Alright girls! You're here because Lady Luck has smiled upon you and gave you the gift of singing. Here-", she gestures out, spreading her arms to generally point out how big and spacious the class was, "We give you the chance to grow that talent. Turning talent... into skill."

We all smile at each other, with Yume beaming from this information, and murmurs grow throughout the class.

"Settle down girls...", we all come down to a hush as she continues again, "Now then, we should try to get an idea of your raw talent... How about... you?" Her finger points at the vermillion girl, causing her to jump in surprise and silently walked up to the front with a calm and collected pose.

I quickly take the chance to elbow Yume softly as she walked up, whispering in her ear,"Think she'll be good?"

Yume's eyes hastily scan over the vermillion cat-like girl, placing her gaze back on me as finishes her assessment, "I think she'll do well enough..."

The girl inhales, smiling wide as she opens her mouth again. Her voice sounds out, confidently - even I could feel the vibrato of her voice ringing out throughout the classroom. Her pitching was impeccable. She hit all the right notes, you could tell by everyone else's faces.

After the lost note rung out, a wave of applauding crashes over the class (a few of them even swooning).

The teacher smiled upon her, but that was only short-lived, "Your voice is particularly amazing with raw talent alone. I think a lot of people would agree with that... However, you should work on fine tuning it a bit more. You hit the notes correctly but you lack the passion to make your voice create an impact. Try to add some flair to it, not just focusing on getting the song right."

The girl nods, dejectedly and marched back to the crowd of students.

"She did pretty well, ey Yume?", I whisper again.

"Yeah but...", Yume mumbles under her breath with a smirk plastered on her face as she looks slightly off to the side, scratching at her neck. She then raises her head, eyes glimmering suddenly as she turns to me fully.

"Wanna have a competition?"

I look at her, then at the girl who just sung then at the front of the room. Quickly, I get the message.

"You're on."

The teacher scoffs, noticing me and Yume's chatting, "You two! Maybe you'd like to demonstrate how duets work now, huh?"

We both look up at the teacher with a mischievous smirk, knowing that she had given us exactly what we wanted.

At the same time, me and Yume saunter up to the front as we mutter on the way about the songs we could sing together to properly judge our ability.

After a few minutes of consulting it, we come to an agreement. We both nod to each other as I draw in a breath for confidence and straighten up my back.

"1,2,3 de Aikatsu!", I project my voice out, low. My hands move on their own against the music we make as my ears await for Yume's voice to come out too.

"Nante ttatte seishun! Mada minu mirai e icchokusen." , She was good. Like, professional good. Her voice was high, in contast of mine being lower, and it worked well with this song much better. Not only did she sing it amazingly, the amount of emotion she had behind each word. It wasn't sadness, no - far from it, but it was happy and energetic.

I start adding some flair into my lines, holding notes a little longer and projecting some lines out differently to give a cool girl spin to it.

All too soon, our voices fade to a hush and people look at us in bewilderment. We were an amazing mix, I have to admit but I obviously had the upper hand as my vocal training started since I started to speak!

"Girls," the teacher places her palms on both of our shoulders, "Your voices were a mix of everything you need in a career in music."

She turns to me, smiling broadly, "I'm impressed with the clarity you add to it, especially turning the cute theme of the song to a cooler one."

Yume, looking over, does not scowl or hiss at me for being attention seeking but smiles and mouths a _You win this one_.

Soon we left the room after a few more performances for a break, though me and Yume didn't leave but yet instead restlessly trained the rest of the break.


	3. Chapter 3 - Racing hearts

Chest heaving up and down; sweat glistening on our foreheads; minds blank as a new A4 sheet of paper.

Basically, we were training our stamina and we had reached our limit.

"Rola... You tire me out..."

"Do you... train like this every day?", Yume raises her head, arms on this ground, pushing herself up to look at me in pure confusion.

"Yes.", I raise my arm, speaking breathlessly.

She tries to rise up, using Koharu as a small ledge to elevate herself but that cuts short, suddenly falling and losing consciousness.

A flash of guilt went through me as I watched her fall.

* * *

"Proper stamina training?", Yume raises a brow as we finished up our vocal training. She took a swig out of her bottle as she wipes some sweat off her brow, "Isn't our vocal exercises enough?"

I nod at her, though not looking at her, "We're gonna be dancing a lot whilst singing which both takes up energy. We need to be up for it." I pat her shoulder and smile, trailing my hand down to her wrist to lead her to where I saw a track we could run down on.

Before I moved anywhere, I glance up at Yume to get some approval first and in return, she gives me a sheepish smile, daring not to move to her wrist away.

I beam, rambling as I tug on her arm to move, "I used to swim a lot because my mother told me that if I ever wanted to sing, swimming is a good way to help with your vocal training too as it helps with your breath capacity. It helped a lot! As you can see now, I'm pretty good at holding a note about 16 seconds now! Since we can't swim right now, however, running should be a good filler for that-."

"Pff-."

"Are you laughing at me?", about 20 seconds away from the track (I think), I halt my movement, jokingly glaring at her and pouting. I mean, I wasn't rambling for a long time... Was I? I turn my head to think for a bit as she sneaks her other hand up, pressing against my back in between my shoulder blades. I don't turn immediately, staying still to hear her reaction instead.

I hear some rustling and Yume presses my back with more pressure, "Sorry, I just never pegged you as a rambling type." Finally, I turn my head slightly to look back at her, smirking.

"And I didn't peg you as a physical contact type," I raise a brow at her hand, afterwards, hastily jumping back to away from me, "I never said I minded it."

"You-!?"

"Don't leave your mouth so open - Come on!"

Once again, I grip her wrist, pulling her desperately to exercise. I have always enjoyed exercise... Okay, that's a lie but it's nice to have someone go through the torture too. I just haven't ever had an exercise partner (rival).

Yume steps toward the track, looking around to take it all in. I don't blame her - the track was much bigger than imagined. While most traditional places have 400m tracks, this track **had **to be much bigger than the average track. I probably was overestimating it though, since, on the ground level, it's hard to differentiate the sizes of things or markings on the ground.

I chuckle, trying to act smugly, "Scared to run it?"

Yume's head whips back immediately, smirking to me, "Rola, you may want to wipe that smirk off your face. I'm much more than you think, y'know?" Her hands gesture out to me and then herself until backtracking after seeing my smug expression and waving her hands to ignore what she had said, "Ignore that! Please!"

My brow raises, questioningly, crossing my arms to try and understand what she meant. She sees this and nervously brings a hand up to her neck, scratching it until I break the silence again with my voice. "Embarrassed so quick, Yume?"

I audibly hear her gulp, pausing then breaking out into a nervous giggle, nodding profusely.

At first, I get confused at this until finally deciding to stand in the first line, lining my feet up against the starting line. I quickly limber up, stretching my legs out as well as my arms. I take the chance to look at Yume as I do so.

She mirrors my actions exactly but she wasn't even looking at me. Her gaze was lying on the track ahead, seemingly daunted by its large length.

"Hey," she flinches under my touch as my fingers grazed the back of her palm, "If you finish this quicker than me, I'll buy you some lunch." I wink and my smile widens as I see her shoulders drop, untensing her muscles so much.

"Alright! Let's go!", we slowly lean down to get into our starting positions, ready to pounce...

until...

"Wait!", we both hear, jumping at the sudden callout.

My eyes rise up to look at the person calling out. It was a girl... I didn't see her in class definitely because her hair would've stood our but she seemed familiar..

"Koharu!", Yume leaps out onto the girl, swinging her a little as her weight settles on _Koharu_, "Rola, this is Koharu! My best friend"

"Hello!"

"Right, yes," I clear my throat, closing my eyes slightly, "I'm Yume's _best _rival." I smirk as Koharu looks between me and Yume for a bit until she smiles.

"You're very impressive, aren't you, Sakuraba-san?"

"Call me Rola, pleas- Hey wait-!", my eyes widen as I hesr my last nsme utter from Koharu. Yume had not made mention of my name to Koharu, right?

Koharu shyly looks over to Yume, "Mind if I join in? I may not be the best but I should still try... if that's fine with you."

Before jumping to sau yes, Yume makes sure to look at me to get an answer. _Gosh, _she's so kind and caring of others isn't she?

I give her a confident nod as she drags Koharu to lane 3 to start.

"Alright...", I take a look at Yume and our eyes are met with each other's line of sight at the right moment. I soften my gaze and smile, looking back forward, "3...2...1...Go!"

Me, Yume and Kohru make a dash down the bend, the other two slowing themselves slightly to adjust to the bend until running even quicker to catch up to me in the 100m striaght ahead.

Koharu makes an effort to keep up until reaching the second bend and gasping for air, starting to slow her pace to catch her breath as me and Yume darts down the bend, the final 100m in reach.

At first, I'm neck and neck with her. Yume makes a great effort trying to keep uo but not for long... I bite my lip and furrow my brows as I imagine 1000s of fans screaming my name out to me. My legs suddenly feels an intense energy to move again and I run even further forward.

A few metres ahead of me is the finish line but a few metres ahead is what it takes for Yume overtske me and leap forward to first place.

A few seconds later, Koharu joins us, panting for air still.

I wipe sweat off my forehead and sigh, "I guess that's that then, I pay for your lunch I guess..." Yume opens her mouth, skin glistening with sweat, but I stop her shortly with, "Let's go again!"

...

Chest heaving up and down; sweat glistening on our foreheads; minds blank as a new A4 sheet of paper.

Basically, we were training our stamina and we had reached our limit.

"Rola... You tire me out..."

"Do you... train like this every day?", Yume raises her head, arms on this ground, pushing herself up to look at me in pure confusion.

"Yes.", I raise my arm, speaking breathlessly.

Yume tries to rise up, using Koharu as a small ledge to elevate herself but that cuts short, suddenly falling and losing consciousness.

A flash of guilt went through me as I watched her fall.

"Yume-?!"

"Don't worry," her words were muffled by the ground but after raising her head up, her words became clearer, "I'm just worn out..."

My eyebrows crinkle my foreword with concern until Koharu took her hands and pulled her up.

"Come on, Rola is gonna buy me some nice noodles."

"I'll make them extra spicy..."

"Rude!"

* * *

Koharu sits beside me as I set Yume's noodles down, "Koharu..."

She looks up at me, sheepishly until she bears another smile to me, poking my forehead with her index finger to reassure me, "She's a tough cookie, trust me."

I take her word for it, not totally convinced but less concerned at least.

This concern rubs off me however, feeling something press against my lips.

"Mmm?", I look up at Yume, seeing her push a cookie between my upper and lower lips. Slowly, I open my mouth by just a little bit and take the cookie between my teeth, biting down into it to bite a piece off.

She stares at me the whole time until she jumps a little, chucking and taking the rest of the cookie herself.

Koharu breaks the silence that is apparent, "You know Yume owns a bakery?"

"Oh so this is-!", before I finish, Yume nods. As she does though, she gently sinks her teeth into the cookie, biting it in the same place I did.

Somehow, I felt my cheeks warm up as I watch her. They keep doing so until I peeled my eyes away from Yume and onto my table and keeping it there for quite a few minutes until I hear her audibly eat her noodles.

"Enjoying your spoils?"

"Tastes nice when you lose, Rola."

"Savour it since you won't taste it a lot Yume.", we somewhat friendily glare at each other as if it was an epic warzone (where the only rules are staring).

"You guys, the noodles are getting cold..."


	4. Chapter 4 - Rise and falls

My fingers daintily smoothed through Yume's soft hair as she snored quietly. She was tired... right?

I pondered on this, scratching my cheek with my free hand in confusion. With my other hand that was going through her hair, I stopped and instead brought my hand upon her cheek, which made her stir and lean into my palm a little more. I rubbed her cheek gently with my thumb, feeling the heat from it rising slightly.

Suddenly, I retracted my hand when I heard a pair of footsteps come into the room.

"Oh... Sakuraba-san, yes?", I turned in surprise, expecting someone like Koharu but instead,

It was Shiratori-senpai.

* * *

A week already had passed since I arrived and a lot of people had warmed up to me already, naturally coming to me when not understanding a question. The teachers felt similarly about me too and they often used me as an example for others to follow.

I was confident in my ability but Yume had her way of deconstructing that. Somehow she could nearly match up to me, sometimes even one-upping me. It scared me because Yume quickly became a threat to my plan of getting the best grades out of everyone. It made a lot of sense that I and she were natural rivals. I was confident, strong and determined to put 200% effort into everything and on the other hand, Yume was friendly, shy but heartwarmingly talented despite her lack of self-confidence.

"Yume! You ready for today?", I tap her shoulder, pushing her slightly. Warmly, I smile at Yume and she smiles back at me a little bit more bravely and less shyly than she usually did.

She turns toward me, spinning on her heel, "Yeah! Koharu and I practised a lot!" Yume smiles even wider until her gaze falls upon my face - the corners of her mouth drop in concern. "You good, Rola?"

I don't take notice of why she's looking at me like that until I see my troubled expression through the reflection of her eyes. My mouth makes a small 'O' shape as I realise. Coughing, I look away from her, fiddling with my curls, "It's nothing, don't worry. Just nervous."

Yume tilts her head, arching her brow until her frown curls into a smile again, "Are you... jealous?" This causes me to jump, eliciting a gasp from myself and a giggle from her.

As she giggled, I groan, smirking as I reach out and pat her head, "Jealous? Only of your cute, chubby cheeks." My smirk grows wider as she jumps just like she made me do beforehand. I laugh as Yume started jabbing my chest.

"Ar-Aren't you just the smooth talker? I bet a lot of guys would f-flock you."

"I'd rather you next to me, Yume.", I laugh a bit harder as she dryly gulps, shoving me away playfully.

Yume walks ahead of me, briskly walking away. I, though, stay and look down at my feet. Biting down on my lip, I started to let my mind wander around...

_Was Yume my friend? She's my rival, yeah but she never really said anything about being friendly? Like is my nature uncomfortable to her? Does she hate how I treat her? Am I being too friendly... Maybe I am. She seemed uncomfortable when I complimented her. Yume is way too kind for me-_

"Rola? Aren't you going to class?", I look up at her; Yume had stopped in her tracks a little bit in front of me, hands fiddling with each other because of how concerned about me she was but nervous she was about me too.

I nod, sighing out my panic and smiling with my lost confidence, "Yeah - slowpoke!" My finger presses her button nose and I dash off, leaving her in the dust. It doesn't take too long for me to hear her footsteps come closer with her yelling out, "Rolaaaaa!"

Soon, she nearly catches up, panting as I laugh, slowing my pace to walk amongst Yume's side to be a little nicer, you know?

I and she then walk to our class, ready to perform to get our 'weekly review' from our teacher; It's our first one and you only really get one chance to make a first impression! My mother told me to always be ready to make an amazing first impression as that first impression lasts longer than most people think.

I'm suddenly thrown off my thoughts as I feel Yume's palm brush over mine. Her fingers purposefully trailing down the back of my palm, daintily. Even though I could only feel her fingers, I could feel the uncertainty of whether she should hold my hand or not. I take a minute, making sure that she wanted to. As soon as she muttered 'Rola?', I intertwine my fingers with her's, taking her hand in mine.

Slowly, I raise our hands to her face, smugly smirking, "If ya wanted to hold hands, you could've just asked..." I squeeze her hand, ensuring her it was alright, "We're friends, you know?" I add a questioning tone at the end, uncertain if we were.

She smiles sheepishly, leading me by the hand to our class, "Of course, but the difference between you and Koharu is that one of them I intend on beating them to the ground."

I laugh loudly, "Wow, Yume... didn't think you thought so lowly of Koharu."

"Let's just go," rolling her eyes, Yume nudges me with her shoulder, "I meant you, by the way."

"I know."

* * *

"Today is your weekly review of your progress. It may sound annoying and tired but this is to ensure you are learning something in your classes with me," the teacher's voice fills the room, stretching outwards to all of us, "You are to practise for 5 minutes now then I will start to call up people to the main hall to perform. Now, go and practise now."

She walks out, heels making a slight clicking noise as she struts out. As soon as the sound of her heels fades away, everyone in the class starts hastily warming up their voices in panic.

Aside from math, I haven't seen people panic as much as they did right now.

"Rola, c'mon!", Yume grabs my wrist and jogs off to a secluded corner of the room. Her hand then relaxes, fingers outstretching with her arms to get ready.

Quickly, I clear my throat and readjust my posture, straightening up my back and taking deep breaths. Releasing a breath, I hum, first low then building it up higher and higher. Soon, Yume joins in and we both are humming in the same pitch. Whenever I went higher, she did and vice versa. After a while, we both start vocalising, warming up our voices to get ready to change octaves often for our review. We did this for a while, vocalising from our diaphragm until draw to a close, humming again until we lower our voices to nothing.

For a while, we look at each other proudly, feeling more confident now that our voices felt ready.

I sigh out, smiling at her, "You think you'll do well?" I nudge her with my elbow, playfully and gently.

In return, she nudges back at me, giggling. She mirrors my sigh and leans against me slightly, "I don't know but... I'll certainly try my best." Yume looks up at me, assessing my face for a bit, staying silent. Her smile widens and she leans closer, "You look so determined."

"Hm? Well, of course. I'm out to beat you, Yume.", I lower my shoulders, relaxing. I leave her on my shoulder for a little bit, just staring at the eyes of each other.

Her's were odd; they were browny-orange? But that made them unique and pretty in a way, sparkly and full of life and excitement. They always seemed to be beaming with happiness.

Our little moment was quickly disturbed with the teacher's voice booming, "Rola Sakuraba, Yume Nijino, Ako Saotome and Mahiru Kasumi. You're up." She points behind herself, instantly panicking me and Yume. The other two seem to shift uncomfortably but other than that, they're perfectly fine.

My eyes drift back on Yume, whose shoulders were tensed up and still against me. Her whole body is shaking. I can feel the nervousness from her.

"Let's do this, Yume.", I take hold of her hand, gently squeezing it. I feel her squeeze it back, smiling with a bit more confidence than before.

"Yeah!"

...

All four us, Me, Yume, Saotome and Kasumi, walk onto the stage. 3 of us nervous and Yume looking like a deer in the headlights. Honestly, the way she stares out at the bright light pointing directly as us blankly made her look as if she was a deer eye to eye with the car's headlights, about to pass out.

Sneakily, I snake my around the behind me and her's bodies and hold her hand briefly to ensure her that it was alright.

She steals a glance from me and nods. The corner of her mouth twitches in a small, temporary smile to show me that she was alright. I do the same back, retracting my hand and looking forward once again.

(1,2 sing for you! is what we sing.)

The silence was broken by myself, taking a sharp intake of air and singing out my voice from my diaphragm to fill the hall's emptiness with my voice. My arms widen out, springing up with emotion and joy. I'm cut off by Yume who confidently sings too with her high voice in contrast of mine. Kasumi then comes in too, voice similar to mine in the way that it is quite low compared to Yume's. She gave this _sexy _and aloof air around her. The cat-like girl, that I learned was Saotome, had quite a high one as I had heard before.

We fill the stage with life, jumping around the stage, making sure to cover every inch of it.

I smile as I sing out confidently, making sure to add an extra flair to it. As I did this, my smile grew wider as the teacher nods approvingly at me.

The performance was reaching its climax until...

_THUD!_

We all stop instantly, spinning to look at the source of the noise. My eyes widen as I slide down to Yume's side.

"Yume!"

* * *

"N-Nngh...", Yume tosses around on the infirmary's bed.

My hand rubs against Yume's, furrowing my eyebrows in worry. Gently, I move my hand over onto her forearm, making sure to be very slow so to not disturb her sleep.

Suddenly, I feel a hand on my shoulder. In response, I turn my gaze up to see who it is, only to see Kasumi and Saotome just behind her; both were wearing worried expressions for Yume too.

"Stay here with Nijino for now and we'll go talk to sensei."

I nod, silently turning away to look at Yume again.

I can hear one of them take in a deep breath, about to say something, but not doing so and instead walk away. I stay completely still until I couldn't hear their footsteps anymore which left me and Yume alone together.

My fingers daintily smooth through Yume's soft hair as she snores quietly. She was tired... right?

I ponder on this, scratching my cheek with my free hand in confusion. With my other hand that was going through her hair, I stop and instead brought my hand upon her cheek, which made her stir and lean into my palm a little more. I rub her cheek gently with my thumb, feeling the heat from it rising slightly.

Suddenly, I retract my hand when I heard a pair of footsteps come into the room.

"Oh... Sakuraba-san, yes?", I turn in surprise, expecting someone like Koharu but instead,

It was Shiratori-senpai.

Anxiously, I stir around just like Yume was doing and clear my throat, now noticing how dry my throat was. I respond, quaintly, "Yeah... Shiratori-senpai from the entrance ceremony..." Swiftly, I dip my body down slightly to bow in respect and as I do, she chuckles and gestures for me to straighten up and so I did.

She giggles (in some likeness to Yume's giggle) and expresses, "Please don't be so formal, Rola-chan, if you do not mind?" Her head rotates slightly just like Yume did before in the early morning. Before I could reply, she places a hand on my shoulder and assures me, "Yume will be alright..." Although this was coming from a trustworthy upperclassman, the way she trailed off her words scares me.

"Senpai," I address her straight, eyebrows furrowing in determination and stubbornness, "Please tell me the truth if you're not so already." My eyes pierce through her's and for a while, she sits in stunned silence until giggling again. I furrow my brows, even more, this time, "Why are you laughing?"

"Rola-chan, don't be so angry... your forehead will crease," I shyly cover my forehead, "Rola, have some faith for Yume. You shouldn't think of the worst things instantly okay... You should put some trust in her." She pats my head thoughtfully, softly smiling (again, similarly to Yume). She narrows her gaze, "To be frank, I thought it was something much wors-"

"Ugh...", A groan escapes Yume's lips, yawning right after. Gracefully, she sits up, straightening her back to stretch out after tossing and turning for what felt like hours. She then groggily looks up me and Shiratori-senpai, not registering who we were.

Instantly, I rush over to her, clasping her hand, "Yume-mmph!"

A finger went over my lips quickly, hearing a groan from Yume's mouth, "... Rola? Don't be loud..." Her head bobs a bit, fighting sleep right now. When her head stars to lean down, I catch her head with my shoulder and my hands rub over her cheeks, feeling her heated skin.

I remove her finger off my mouth and lift her to get her to lean back against the wall.

"Ahem, Yume-chan...", Shiratori-senpai waves slightly, getting Yume's attention.

Yume rubs her eyes, straightening her back again and taking a second look at Shiratori-senpai again. When she does, her eyes widen and she hastily covers herself with the blanket, mumbling unintelligently, embarrassed as hell. "H-Hime-sempai! What are you doing here?", she sneaks her head out to peek at Shiratori-senpai, completely ignoring me.

"Ugh...", I huff out as Shiratori-senpai looks at me, giggling. In response, I lean back in my chair, crossing my arms in annoyance.

She leans towards Yume, smiling warmly, "Here to check up on you. I heard your friends shuffling down from the infirmary." Shiratori-senpai looks up at me, mouth widening to smile ear to ear, "Rola-chan here was by your side the whole time."

I flinch at this comment, feeling my cheeks heat up like Yume's. Hesitantly, I make eye-contact with Yume's bronze eyes which looked at me with wonder and soon with joy. Her hand rests on my crossed arm, smiling even more warmly at me and I smile back.

"You're gonna make take the review again, you know."

"Crap..."

"Don't worry, I've sorted it...", Shiratori grins, standing up and walking away, gesturing a brief goodbye wave. Soon, her footsteps fade from earshot and left us both alone together again.

After a few moments, my palms slide up to Yume's, fingers intertwining with each other. I lean down, leaning my forehead onto our hands. My hands squeeze her's and she squeezes back. All I hear after is her laugh.

"You really like holding my hands."

"Feels like a good luck charm, Yume.", my lips brush against our hands, smiling against it.

She laughs a little harder... It sounds heavenly, "Sounds really cheesy."

"Mmm, yeah. How about... I'll beat you next time? Into a pulp.", we both just chuckle, filling the unnecessary silence in the room with laughter instead of our singing voices. We didn't need that to worry about right now. We had e-

Koharu pants, rushing into the room, "Y-YUME!"


	5. Chapter 5 - Love Rival?

"Wow, Yume... You had us hella worried y' know?", I sigh out both in relief and annoyance. Sulkily, I shove my hands into my pockets.

I really miss her hands.

Koharu cuts in, pointing at Yume, "Yo-You really scared me! First thing, I'm doing my lesson! Next, I hear my best friend from the next class over has fainted!" Koharu's finger raises to Yume's forehead, flicking it in punishment.

Yume grumbles apologetically as Koharu, slamming her hands together to ask for forgiveness, "Koharu-chan! Rola! I'm so sorry!" She bows down, throwing her arms down to her sides with a sorry expression. Her blonde-pink hair cascading down her shoulders and falling like twin waterfalls, both of which were as hypnotising as each other. The bow on her head, bowing down too and the red brought her honey-bronze eyes and blonde hair out. My eyes wander down to her uniform and how it seemed to fit her slim and slender frame perfectly, no creases or loose fabric. It just felt unfair that her body was-

"R-Rola, you're starting to embarrass me with how much you're staring...", She brings her hands to her chest, instinctively covering her body even if it didn't cover so much. A blush starts to spread from her cheeks to around her face, red spilling to her ear next. Yume combs her fingers through her fringe, nervously as she avoids my line of eye-contact.

I gulp down my nerves, trying to hide it as much as I can. "You were begging like a dog for a treat - how could I not stare?", I chuckle, eyes drifting upon Koharu who was joining in my laughter.

"Eh? You're so mean...", Yume pouts until suddenly, she stumbles towards the wall as we walked. She luckily catches herself; her left arm reaching out to the wall to support her weight. Her breathing gets steeper instantly.

Seeing this reaction, Koharu wraps her arm around Yume's right arm, looping it together to keep her close to her as well as to support her. Like a mother, her hand slides up to her forehead to check her temperature and investigates her face with her eyes to find anomalies.

After a few long seconds, she pulls away, sighing, "You should get some rest."

"Hold on, all that looking and watching just to say she should rest?"

"I agree."

A familiar voice, joins in, followed by a pair of footsteps... no 2 pairs of footsteps following behind us.

We swivel around to meet Saotome and Kasumi. Saotome's expression had some obvious concern and worry whilst Kasumi was more calculating, mature and composed though through her words worry was portrayed even more.

Silence falls upon us until Yume speaks up.

"Kasumi Mahiru, yes? Thanks for helping out. I appreciate -", as Yume was about to finish, Kasumi raises her hand gracefully to halt her speech, looking at Yume pointedly.

She takes in a breath, "No need. You fainted and We did what people would always do in the situation. As for the review, we're to do ours until we've confirmed you're in good health."

"There's really no need to hold up up your review for-!", it was my turn to cut her off, placing my finger on her lips like before, smiling smugly.

I turn to face her directly, "It's no competition if we can't participate together, Yume." My finger then trails off her lips, staying on the lower lip for a while until removing it from her mouth completely. I give her a grin, reassuring her that I wouldn't perform without her by my side.

The cat-like girl pouts too, "It sucks though... We were doing really quite well there." She crosses her arms in annoyance, poking at the crease in between Yume's eyebrows, "Get better quickly, okay?"

Before Yume even had a chance to say a word, Kasumi and Saotome leave, folding their arms behind them. Both exuding that air of maturity, more so to Kasumi though.

I smile at the sight of them leaving, not because of their lack of presence here (but it did make me happy to be with Yume and Koharu) but because they showed compassion and shared many of my thoughts too.

"Rola," Yume tilts her head up to me, resting her hand gently against my upper arm, "Thank you."

My head whips up as Koharu lets out a gleeful giggle beside me. My eyes shoot at Koharu with a glare, making sure to make her yelp as I glared her down hard like an owner scolding her puppy.

I clear my throat, begrudgingly yet calmly nudging Yume's hand off my arm, "It's alright, Yume. I didn't do much."

Quickly, I increase my pace to go ahead, ignoring if Yume or Koharu protested at my sudden departure away from the two. As rude as it was, It was better if I kept away from Yume for a few minutes mainly because my heart was hammering against my chest.

Though all the science in the world can explain the beating of the heart and its ventricles and atriums, no science can explain the reason why a person of the same sex would make you feel as if you were climbing a mountain.

My hands clammy and my heart dying, I turn the corner and grimace for the next day, hoping that this predicament of mine would surely disappear into thin air like nitrogen coming in and out of your body because of its uselessness.

Just like these feelings.

* * *

My pen taps against the paper of my book rapidly. The boring, monotone and flat voice of the disinterested teacher was setting into me.

It was strange.. to study other subjects apart from singing and choreography in a school where idols are born but I had expected this so before joining this school, I studied the hell out of the key subjects all students from schools learn.

I already knew what the teacher was blabbing on about, stuff about genetics and how eye colour and hair colour is passed on... blah, blah blah...

Suddenly, my mental complaints were set aside as I feel a light tap against the right side of my head. At this feeling, I look for the source of it immediately, drawing my attention to a crumpled up piece of paper.

Just like before, my head whips, seeing Saotome acting sooo naturally in class, fidgeting whilst looking forward intently at the teacher as if she enjoyed the lesson.

I ignore this and I reach out to the paper to see its message.

_Let's talk? On the track's bleachers_.

I raise a brow at this, confused as to why she'd want to talk to me. Maybe Kasumi because she was closer but... to me.

I sigh, nodding slightly as Saotome takes a glance at me. I hear a sigh of relief from her as if she expected rejection.

For the rest of the lesson, my eyes are directed to the conspicuous empty chair in front of me, missing the twin waterfalls of blonde and pink I'd stare at occasionally...

...

Saotome stands as I come into view but she halts and lowers herself again when I gesture her to sit back down.

I take my place beside her, flicking my hair away from my shoulders to brace for our conversation. Somehow I feel uneasy, almost disturbed by this arrangement we made. Something about it felt odd.

"Sakuraba... I wanted-"

"Rola."

"Err, Rola-chan," Saotome grimaces to herself as she feels my name roll off her tongue, "I wanted advice." She shakily breathes out, fiddling with her fingers like toys.

I stay in silence for a while, letting her gather her breath until I hear her breathing slow, "Saoto- no - Ako-chan. If you needed singing advice, I'm your competition, you know so-?" I'm quickly shut off when Ako shakes her head furiously, shaking even more than before.

"Subaru-Kun, I like him."

"Who's that?", Ako leans into me, glaring at me furiously. I shuffle back away from this dance but we repeat the same steps: she leans in and I move back.

Finally, I let out an uncomfortable groan, raising a questioning brow, "Should I know him or somethin'?" I cross my arms, waiting for her to ramble about him. My position shifts, trying to make her assume I was interested in the topic.

Clearing her throat, she announces loudly, "M4! One of the upcoming students of this school?! He's super famous and devilishly handsome and has had multiple offers for marriage with many rich girls yet he doesn't say a yes yet!"

I bring my hand to my temple, annoyingly, reacting to this stupid lovesick cat, "Surely him being famous is one thing that separates you and him."

"I never know until I try!"

"Then what do you need advice on?", I furrow my eyebrows, annoyed that this girl took a large bite out of my time to just ramble about a famous guy to me who would never even pay any mind to her.

Saotome twiddles with her fingers for a little while, gaze falling further down and down until she was staring right at her legs. "Uhm," she extracts a breath out of the air, "You're kinda famous, right? Maybe you can ask him out for me?"

My mouth opens, agape at her favour.

**"NO WAY!"**

"Heh? Why?"

My hands run everywhere in a mix of emotions, a big flurry of emotions and movements. "I'm not interested in your romantic endeavours! You should go to Kas- Mahiru or someone else for it! I'm only focused on getting on top..."

I expect Ako's face to be crest-fallen but instead, it looks confused, as if searching for an answer through my face.

She sighs out, "You and Nijino...?"

My shoulders ever so slightly twitch in reaction to the name. Throat and hands aching as my heartbeat goes ever so loudly as her name echoes through my head. I swallowed dryly, "What of us?"

"You guys aren't some kind of item?"

My shoulders flinch, nearly choking on the idea of me and Nijino together...

_Nijino and I? We- Of course not. We're rivals._

I pout at this, shooting Ako a furious glare. I bring my hands to my sides, balling my hands into tight fists. My glare grows angrier as she ignores my reaction.

Ako continues, completely disregarding my (silent) protests, "You and Nijino look quite close... Like you're always partnered together and you both hold hands quite a lot. Not only that but the way you guys look at each other-"

"ENOUGH!", I throw my fists down into the bleachers, catching Ako's attention to my protests. When I do this, she stays completely silent, waiting for my breath to slow down to a normal rate. "Look, me and Yume aren't at all close. We're rivals, okay? Anyways, I will tell you again," I take in a shaky, angry breath, "I have no interest in your romantic endeavours! Mahiru or Koharu might be, even Yume, but not me- Mmph!" My words are muffled suddenly by Ako's hand, quickly dragging me into the back of the bleachers.

"Shh!", she removes her hand, bringing her index finger to her lips to gesture me to stay silent.

My eyebrows furrow until my face softens second-by-second when I hear 2 voices: one familiar and another not so.

One's voice was light and vanilla-y? If you could describe it like that... That voice surely belongs to Yume but the other, I wouldn't know.

I shuffle close to the bleachers to hear more of their conversation, "Ah, thanks for helping me break my fall Subaru-kun!"

"No problem... But you're real' heavy, you know?", the guy groans and as he does I curse under my breath, muttering death threats to him.

Yume sighs disapprovingly, "I'm not... Uhm, hey so... Have you seen a girl with pinkish hair? Ocean blue eyes?" I see through the slight gaps of the bleachers Yume gesturing around to describe my height and body.

I bite my lip as she describes me further, embarrassingly detailed.

"W-Wow, you sure seem to know a lot about her..."

"OH- I -uh- hang out with her a lot!", Yume giggles nervously, scratching her head, "Anyways, have you seen her? I wanted to train with her again..."

Ako stifles a laugh. I can practically hear her teasing tone through it. Ako muffles herself and me as we nearly gasp at Subaru's reaction when Yume leans a little closer to him: He's blushing, furiously so. Almost as red as his hair! He looks nervous as Yume explores his face with her gaze.

_He likes her._


	6. Chapter 6 - Secret Song

"Rola, you're acting so weird... What's wrong?", Koharu leans into me, curious as to why I had been holding a glaring expression away from them and why I was so silent for the whole day.

The day after we listened to Subaru and Yume, Ako and I haven't spoken a word to the rest of the group as we were... disappointed.

_Disappointed? Why would I be?_

I let out a sigh. Seeing this sigh, Koharu physically relaxes and her shoulders slouch down in relaxation.

My elbows lean onto the table, chin resting on my fists, "I guess I'm just sulking over nothing, Koharu, so don't worry about me... Okay?" I go back to sulking again, looking down intensely at the table without saying another word. My fingers fiddle with my lips, unamused by people's worried questions directed at me.

Yume's small dainty hands come into view, brushing the table with her fingertips to grab my attention and that it did indeed.

My head tilts up slowly, holding my brooding expression as I look at Yume and Koharu's eyes which were distressed by my expression. No matter how much they smiled, I could tell that they were hung up by my silence for the whole day.

This awkward exchange of looks is disturbed by a hand landing on my shoulder, nudging me to look up at them. It was Ako, wearing a glaring expression like mine before. Her eyes though were telling of a different emotion; sad, red and painful eyes that resembled the look of a bloated ball that was filled with water. It shines brightly with previous tears that were shed before.

I stand immediately, knowing what she wanted to say.

"Let's go to the bleachers and talk?", she whispers under her breath to hide it from Yume and Koharu.

My head tilts forward, nodding to signal that I'd be there.

"Sorry," I utter, not wanting to look at the two at all, "I'll be in the next lesson."

Yume gasps to say something but I hear Koharu breathlessly saying, _"Just let her go."_

I mentally note to thank Koharu for understanding and reluctantly leave the cafeteria without another word or look at them.

_Sorry, Yume._

* * *

Ako cries out loudly against my shoulder, clutching my sleeves to support her weight against me. She stains my shirt with tears and I don't react to it even when the tears start going further down. I knew Ako needed this as her first love was already showing an interest in somebody else.

My hands awkwardly wrap around her, confused as to how we had got this close already.

We were under the bleachers, in tears (Well, Ako). All you could hear was muffled sobs and painful screams.

"R-Rola... I thought-!"

"Give it a break, Ako. He's just a guy. You can find someone else...?", I trail off confusedly as my experience in love was lacking. Let alone, heartbreak. I went off of my prior knowledge to romance novel tropes. "Plus you barely knew him..."

"No," she shakes her head passionately, gripping at my clothing harder, "I loved him because of our one fateful meeting." I stay silent for her elaborate, "He helped me out when I got lost on the train and I met him unexpectedly again at the start of school... It was like..."

"Fate?", I lean against her shoulder, sighing against her shirt, "I don't know..."

Ako's shoulder suddenly rises against my face in surprise. She gasps as her arms crawl onto my back, hugging me like I had done to her before... She hugs me tightly which confused me further.

"G-Get off!", I yell out, coming out more shakily than I expect it to. I protest at her tight hug, thrashing around to loosen her grip on me.

"You're... crying.", at this comment, my hands wipe at my eyes, feeling the cold and limpid tears that glaze my eyes. My hands start furiously crushing my eyes to stop my tears from pouring out but they do anyway.

There was no choice denying, I was dumb and dense or just annoyingly stubborn.

_Blonde hair with a pink ombre comes into my thoughts, orange-red eyes shining brightly with joy and motivation. Her cheeks constantly dusted with a pink blush, brushing over the rest of face when she's embarrassed. Arms and legs slender and tight to her muscles and clothes fitting tightly over her body, not so much as a crease in sight. The smile on her face... Her smile. Her genuine one. _

"Ako... I'm dumbly in love with Yume.", I sniffle, looking her directly in the eye with a sombre and guilty expression.

"Rola?", Ako looks up at me with those same limpid and transparent tears I have in my eyes. She hesitantly reaches out but I swat it back, gently so to not hurt her feelings.

Groaning, I stand and stretch, pulling my clothes down to make myself presentable. A sigh escapes my lips, annoyingly leaving Ako alone behind the bleachers. I sling my bag loosely over my left shoulder as I step away from the track and the bleachers of where a realisation I had never wanted to admit was uttered out.

* * *

"Haah, haah...", I jog around the track for at least the 5th time after the last of the lessons had ended. I keep training intensely (of course, making sure to make intermittent breaks), getting my head off of the topic of Yume. I chant a pant with each step I slam down against the track. Each step feeling as if it had the intent to kill the ground, or at least my shoes.

A tap catches my attention quickly, swerving me around instantly, "Hey, Rola." She nervously raises a hand to greet me, smiling.

Instinctively, I jump back, frozen in shock.

"Ah, Yume."

My eyes look off to the side, focusing on a particularly low cloud that floats around idly.

In Yume's silence, I can feel her feel contrived. She wanted desperately to ask something. Knowing her, I knew exactly what she wanted to ask. Something on her mind that had bothered her for the whole day.

I can feel myself break cold sweat from the atmosphere and not even from the training. This prompts me to shake my head and face Yume, arms falling to my sides, "What's wrong, Yume?"

Yume takes a minute to respond, looking taken aback.

"What's wrong, Rola?" she starts, sighing out relief and annoyance, "You've been so quiet that Koharu spoke even more than you!" Her fist gently collides with my chest in playful frustration, pouting.

As much as I had wanted to play along, I was way too sulky for jokes and games so instead I hang my head down low for Yume to get the message.

Her lips form an 'O' shape and audibly sounds it out too, eyebrows curving into visible worry. Her hands then gracefully cup my cheeks, causing my hot tears to form in the corners of my eyes. "Hey...", she whispers, now cradling my head in her arms, "Rola."

The action does not push me to cry but instead makes me feel guilty.

I whisper in Yume's ear, "Sorry." Collecting myself and furrowing my brows, I step back but she snakes her slender arms around my body tightly.

With a determined tone, she tightens the hug, "Rola, please talk to me... I know it's been only a few days since we last talked for real but it's been lonely..."

I feign a chuckle, arms gently patting her back, "Getting lonely with me leaving, aha?"

"Talk to me, Rola."

I stay silent, looking up. I and Yume had already switch our sides so that I was cradling her head instead of her cradling mine. My hand smooths through her hair, smelling the honey-vanilla scent of her shampoo. Biting my lip, I shuffle around to force her head to face mine.

"Let's talk."

...

Yume slides back a strand of her hair, shuffling around uncomfortably.

"Jeez, you have some ants in your clothes or something? You know we're friends...?", my eyebrow curls upwards in question with my shoulders doing the same. When she nods frivolously, my shoulders square up. I smile, "Think of it as any other conversation."

She nods, gesturing for me to talk.

Looking into her eyes, I see her kind and soft shape of her eyes. It is round, not sharp like my eye shape. The colour of her eyes is bright as if they were glowing with anticipation.

_I can't tell her now. It's too soon. _With a smile, I tell her frankly, "I love somebody with all my heart." My hand comes to my chest to shut away my heart's loud beating.

"Rola, yo-you were rejected?"

I flinch, shaking my head, "Indirectly but I guess I never know if they like someone else until I try."

Clumsily, she hugs me in an uncomfortable angle. It makes me smile wider and prompts me to blow in her ear (causing her to shiver) and whisper huskily, "I'll tell them when they truly grow."


	7. Chapter 7 - Friendly Competition

Yume and I sit there, not saying much after our long conversation. The sky was starting to be painted yellow and the light was scattered across the buildings' walls and roofs. It was a signal for our cue to start going back home but how both of us did not attempt to go home.

Softly, Yume sighs, "We should get back..." She pushes herself off me, begrudgingly. I still held onto her sleeves though, scared to let go.

"Yume," I lean my forehead against her's for a while, savouring this fleeting moment, "Thanks." I know Yume has no interest in me or will ever but I know that I should at least take my time with her until I inevitably confess to her. My grip strengthens until I realise I am disturbing her.

She looks at me strangely but her face then soften and she waves hesitantly, "Good luck, Rola."

I half-wave back, daring not to look her in the eye, smiling.

"I should... finish my laps."

* * *

"Morning Koharu, Yume, Mahiru!", I greet them gleefully, spinning around to meet their surprisingly dumbstruck faces.

Koharu is the first to open her mouth, "Rola, y-you're surprisingly up and at them..." She reaches out to me, probably in worry but I assure her by grabbing her hands. Her mouth gapes open wide, about to ask somethong but I quickly shush her with my finger.

I smile wide, genuinely, tilting my head, "Yeah." My gaze drifts off to the side of Koharu, seeing Yume who was grinning cheerfully to me. My fingers trace patterns on my cheeks, feeling the heat on my face.

"Morning, Sakuraba," I shoot a look at Mahiru, "Rola-san." She narrows her gaze as she utters my name.

In response, I nod, breathing in, "Mahiru, haven't you been stringing along with us so much?" I giggle, gently nudging her shoulder jokingly. I lean forward, smirking at Mahiru. Yume and Koharu also lean in, watching Mahiru intently. We were all quite curious about why she would want to come with us. We've seen her with other people before as well.

After a few minutes of silence, she sighs, "My friends and my sister are busy."

"Wh-"

"No," furrowing her brows and crossing her arms, she assumes a position that was intimidating and could shut down a conversation with a single syllable word spoken, "Can I hang out with the friends I choose?"

My eyes widen and I'm pretty sure without looking that Koharu and Yume are too. We all stare at Mahiru collectively, not saying a word and not even breathing (Well... I was at least.) Finally, Yume somehow says through bated breath in an excited tone, "Mahiru-chan! We're your friends?"

Mahiru breaks into a cold sweat, trying to keep her cool, "O-Of course. Do you think I'd hang around with people I don't like?" She swipes some invisible hair away, looking off to the side to brush off the topic but she probably knew we weren't gonna leave it so quickly, noticing our curious eyes.

"Let's please just drop this..."

"Hi, guys...", Ako drops in, stealing the conversation topic. Her words drift off as she averts her gaze from Mahiru and looks right at me. My eyes dart from Yume to Ako, hoping she'd get the message. Soon, she does and she breaks into a forced grin, standing next to me.

Yume looks between the two of us, raising a brow. Somewhat sombrely, she leans down and presses her chin against her palm, looking away from the group. She breathlessly mutters something, fiddling with her shirt's long sleeves.

Before joining Koharu, Ako and Mahiru's avid (as avid as Mahiru can get with conversation) conversation, I stop short to hook my pinky finger to Yume's.

Suddenly, she jumps in surprise, looking at me directly without a word as if to accuse me of something. Yume did not walk away or hold on more.

"You don't wanna?", I innocently ask, smiling and now holding her hand.

**_I'm so mean._**

**_I shouldn't be asking her to do these things. _**

Yume bites on her lip, looking towards Ako, Koharu and Mahiru. After doubting myself for a few seconds and loosening up my grip, she returns the gesture and squeezes my hand in response. She also smiles, giggling, "Thought you were the cool one... Not that I'm complaining, haha."

"Yeah, cos' you're always complaining about getting to touch me."

I gasp to myself, using my other hand to cover my mouth as I realise how wrong that had sounded to come out of my mouth. She does the same too but blushing furiously. Something inside me told me that red was a good colour for her. We both look away from each other, embarrassed.

"You're nasty, Rola."

"Mmm," I hum in agreement, scratching the back of the palm that was holding Yume's hand, "I am."

**_I'm maliciously for doing this to Yume. Definitely. _**

Hastily, we remove our hands from each other's when Ako catches our attention by yelling out, "Come on! We're going to be late!" She crosses her arms after gesturing to Koharu and Mahiru walking away from us, deep in conversation.

Yume runs forward, blushing furiously, covering her face as she runs from me.

My hand lonelily reaches out, dropping my hands to my sides afterwards. I take the time to stare at my palm for a minute to look at where the lingering tingling was of the absence of Yume's hand. I guess I've been getting a little too used to Yume's hands now. Silently, I sigh and start to walk off towards the group now.

* * *

"Red roll paper, yellow roll paper, blue roll paper*...", I quickly speak, taking deep breaths as I start a new attempt. After my fifth one, I feel my jaw cramping up as the number of 'a's in the tongue twister. Gently, I massage my jaw to soften the aching in my lower jaw. My hands wrap around my neck after massaging my jaw, looking up and sighing in frustration.

_(*A Japanese tongue twister - Akamakigami, kimakigami, aomakigami)_

Suddenly, my face is pricked by a cold sensation on my left cheek. I hastily swat the source of the cold away and cover my cheek where the cold air is still felt. Afterwards, I cast a glare at whoever did that only for my face to soften at the sight of Ako. Of course, I didn't give her a lot of mercy though. I pierce her with my glare yet again. "Saotome!", I yell, grabbing her by her collar roughly.

Ako daintily tosses the drink behind her as she is grabbed. She attempts to shove me back, kicking my knee several times to try and knock me over but I press on. Ako's hands come up and wave them in front of me to gesture a small apology, "Sorry - I just thought you wanted a drink!"

My attention is brought away from Ako to Yume who was awkwardly holding 2 bottles of cold water. She gives me a small, nervous smile as she notices our situation.

"Ho-How kind...", I cough, letting go of Ako's collar gruffly. I sigh and hold out my palm for Yume to give me my drink.

Yume firmly places it in my hand, not saying anything yet smiling purely. She looks up at my eyes, which were avoiding her's. I could see her from the corner of my eye, seeming troubled with how to interact with me. Soon, she lets go, stepping back and plasters on a defeated smile.

Ako does not take note of this and instead takes the opportunity to grab my collar and shake me violently, causing me to get dizzy and sick. "HOW DOES THIS FEEL BACK HUH?! I WAS TRYING TO BE NICE!"

"I GET IT - NOW GET OFF!", My hands plant onto her face, pushing her back to not attract more attention than we were already getting.

The teacher walks in, snapping her fingers to catch our attention, "Alrighty girls! Hime Shiratori will be joining us to teach." She waves her hand over to where Shiratori-senpai was standing, who was gracing the class with her confident smile.

I jump as her eyes fall on me and Yume, switching between us. She then collects herself and looks over the whole class, "Alright, let's begin." She claps her hands together, grabbing everyone's attention in a second. It was even quicker than when the teacher would try to grab our attention.

We all straighten up our backs, acting as if Shiratori-senpai was a drill sergeant and we were men training to fight for the war. She saunters along, calmly yet intimidatingly, around the room to take a glance at every person here. She soon gets to me, Ako and Yume and it takes a moment for her to look us up and down. Momentarily, her smile widens and she continues her walk around the room.

I release a breath I didn't even know I was holding. Somehow, she made me feel so uneasy. There was a cold, snowing air that seemed to surround her at all times when she came near. Either it was her gratingly kind _fake _personality or the border between me and her as a singer. My guess would be the latter, seeing how a single syllable that fell from her lips would captivate me in some kind of twisted jealousy. I gulp down, holding my chest ruefully, basking in my self-pity.

"Kasumi Mahiru-chan," Shiratori-senpai addresses Mahiru with a kind grin, "Your sister talks avidly of you, you know?" She places her hand upon Mahiru's shoulder, making her tense up and lose her cool for one second. Later, Mahiru's shoulders sag and Shiratori-senpai continues with that hateful smile, "You're every bit as talented and skilled as Yozora says... and you're very beautiful too."

Mahiru gulps just like I do; I can sense her distress from here. She waves it off, "She says a lot of things..."

"Your brother too! Asahi-Kun was very informative about you are... and how close you are with Yozora."

"...", she stands in stunned silence, looking disturbed and intruded. Someone, of who she never knew personally, had intruded into her details.

Shiratori-senpai even picks up on this and leans into Mahiru's ear, whispering something that seemed to calm her down. "I have high hopes for you, Mahiru." She walks to the front again, collecting herself to act as if she never did or said anything.

Me, Yume and Ako stare in Mahiru's general direction, creasing our forehead in worry. But soon that worry dissipates as Shiratori announces, "I want you guys to pair up! You will then choreograph a dance routine to that song. A lot of the time, you won't be on the stage alone so get used to pairing up!" She claps her hands together in satisfaction, giggling ecstatically. Her eyes fall on me then trailing off to Yume after, suggesting the idea of us in a pair.

This prompts us two to look at each other in uncertainty for a while until I smirk. _'Comp...pe...ti...tion.'_ I mouth to her, emphasising especially on each syllable. I then wink as a sly smile creeps onto her face in response.

She nods, striding confidently closer to me which gives Shiratori-senpai a wider smile.

"Let's do this, Rola!", she raises her arm, outstretching her fingers and opening her hand for her palm to suggest a high-five.

I return the gesture, slapping her palm with mine firmly yet soft enough to not hurt her gentle and beautiful hands. wanting to establish our friendly rivalry.

"Mm!", I smile in approval, curling my hands into fists as adrenaline and excitement circulate my body.

* * *

Yume and I step in synch with one another and move and react to each other's movement to make our choreography lively. Each time a beat sounded from the speakers, our limbs would firecely swing around to the beat, making sure not to skip it. We were so in synch that people started taking notice and mumbles started rising in the room.

I smirk as I feel their gaze fall on me especially, flashing my smirk at Yume to show my complete superiority.

We spin, in synch yet again, sliding to a stop abruptly to end our dance with a confident pose. I cover my face with my hand, fingers outstretched and face looking off to the side aloof whilst Yume's eyes directly addresses the audience we had gathered and had her body opened up to give off a friendly and welcoming feeling.

Suddenly, everyone starts closing in, praising us highly and looking at us in utter awe.

"Sakuraba! You were so cooool!"

"And Nijino! Your steps seemed so bouncy and fun to do!"

We stand there, smiling widely as we thanked and thanked them for their high opinions of our preparation.

Quickly, my head whips around to look for Shiratori's reaction desperately. Soon, I find her in a corner of the room, smiling at us and just like the teacher, she nods approvingly in our general direction.

I feel a tug at my sleeve, hearing a high pitched voice come from the same direction, "I won't lose to you."

"I'll have you know I have the same idea."

We smile, friendily yet determinedly at each other knowing our rivalry was blossoming more and more.


	8. Chapter 8 - Let's run forward together

"Haah–", I sigh out in exhaustion after our fifth and final practice of the choreography. Again, we pose with elegance and grace but as soon as the music ends, we fall into a slimy and clammy mess on the ground.

"This surely is... torture."

"Mm..", I return, feeling tired and sore afterwards. A loud audible gulp is heard behind me after I stretch out my stiff arms, "Hm?" I hum, turning my head to Yume slightly to see her visually uncomfortable for some reason. Reaching out, I touch her arm gingerly, looking up at her panting.

Yume sits up slowly, curling her back to click it into place. She breathes out, "Want a massage?" Her hand's gesture toward me, coming to her.

My face flares up red instantaneously. I cover my reddening scarlet cheeks from embarrassment. Silently, I mouth, "Sure." I shuffle across the hard floor for Yume to reach me easily and she meets me halfway, outstretching her hands and hovering them over my shoulders. I roll my shoulders back, twisting my back and relaxing my arms for Yume to do her job. I shut my eyes tightly, pressing my eyelids together.

Shivers and tingling sensations are sent around my body from her fingers to my shoulders and my feet. Her fingers and palms knead against my shoulder blades, cracking and rolling her fists until my shoulder sags in relaxation. I smile and hum at the touch of her soft fingers, surprisingly warm and kind in her movements. I lean back towards her, making her stop her motion, "Thanks - it feels nice."

Her hands crawl over to tops of my shoulders almost teasingly, "I don't think it would feel _that _nice."

"Are you calling me a liar?", I giggle, gingerly touching her soft hand, "Wow, Yume, you're so mean..."

In return, she goes into a giggle fit and leans forward to touch her forehead to the back my head and when she leans back, that same place tingles with warmth and I can almost feel Yume still leaning onto me.

_**What is wrong with me?**_

"I-I'm good now, Yume." I swat her hands away quickly, lowering my head in shame. My hand goes to my face embarrassingly, shaking when she looks at me closely to see if I was okay. "Yu-Yume!", I call out, pushing her back and stepping away.

"You're red," she points at my face, scratching her cheek with the other hand. Yume's other hand comes to my cheek too but her thumb rubs over its surface to feel the temperature. It rises when she starts to pull me closer to her body, "You're getting hot! Like a computer when it's overclocking!" She proudly states, causing me some confusion.

I try to teasingly say, "That's real' specific." I cross my arms and shake my head to get her hands away.

"Sorry, I just kinda heard it from a video."

"A computer overclocking? What do you watch?"

"YouTube recommendations."

My eyebrow twitches, quizzically but softens after a while when I start to think of it more rationally.

She giggles, making me look at her expression, "Seeing you think like that is cute." I flush red and soon she hesitantly speaks again after the realisation of what she had called me, "I-I didn't mean it in that way, Rola-"

_**Ouch-**_

"-I wasn't t-thinking... I mean you're cute of course but I don't I would- I mean- I-"

"Chill out, Yume. Jeez, and I thought you'd be cool for one second," she pouts at my remark, squeezing my cheeks but I quickly swat them away. I start to laugh explosively and she joins in slowly but surely. Soon, we're laughing without a care in the world just like any old friends would...

She wipes her face, sighing out, "Let's practise more."

"Sure," I pull her down, laughing, "Number two..."

Yume's smile widens as she hears her new nickname.

* * *

As usual, I jog across the track, panting. I chant '1,2,1,2' over and over again to encourage my feet to hit the ground to the steady beat of the sound. It's good practice for those who have trouble keeping to a beat or even unsteady beat when you're dancing and don't have time to think about dancing and just doing it instinctively.

When I reach a stretch which passes by the benches, I see Ako sitting there with 2 Bentos on her right, pondering about something. I start to slow down my pace at this sight.

"Ako!", I wave at her, calling out.

She hears this, perking up and smiling wide, "Rola-chan! Join me!" Her hand pats the space next to her that was empty, beckoning me to join her hastily as she grows impatient quickly.

I sit down, leaning back on my arms and pushing my weight down them. I sigh out, panting a few time to get back the oxygen I've lost. It takes a while as I did a lap around the track once already and was on my way to a second one. Ako waits patiently, surprisingly even going so far as to smoothe my back down in the same manner as Yume would in kindness.

Gently, Ako leans on my shoulder smirking, "You and Yume were having fun that lesson, weren't you?"

"You know, I'd tease you if not for my kindness," I pat her head but reel my hand back when my eyes fall onto the Bentos beside her, "Waiting for someone?" I pull away Ako's head awkwardly, thinking the person she was waiting for someone who was romantically involved with her.

Her face turns to me, "It's not Subaru-Kun!" She quickly responses in an accusatory tone, pointing at me rudely. She returns to her original position next to me, leaning on me with her head on my shoulder as if we were lovers. Ako continues to pout more and more.

I laugh, "But you'd rather it be him, hm? Who's it?"

"Me," me and Ako almost fall off the bench, jumping at the sudden call out from the track. Familiarity, I hear her voice and identify her as Mahiru. She looks up disapprovingly at our reaction, "I'm not a ghost."

Chuckling, I pull off my jacket, pushing Ako aside to. I then throw it across at Mahiru's face.

"That's gross.", She roughly balls it up and ties it to throw it back at me, but with one hand because of the hot pastry she held in her other hand, "You train here often?" Mahiru finally sits down next to Ako which makes Ako shift to lean on Mahiru instead.

My eyes trail off to the track, "Yeah, why? You want to join or something?"

"Perhaps but I wouldn't want to come in unnoticed with Yume and all...", she sighs, scooping the ice cream and eating it whilst making sure to not disturb Ako's peaceful expression as she leaned there on her shoulder.

_**With Yume? What about it?**_

"Y-Yume?"

"Hm, doesn't she stick with you a lot? Like you're quite close?"

My face flares up, red and confused. Many things in mind in mention of her name. Nothing too bad of course but it seemed selfish to think of Yume like that. I love her but I just want to be her friend and not take it too far with this.

"I'm... I'm going to finish my lap."

Ako erupts into laughter, probably accounting the embarrassment through this evasion but I wasn't ashamed of it. It was perfectly normal to be embarrassed about people interpreting others being in a relationship. I mean, I could've said-

"You and Yozora-senpai would be cute, considering if you enjoy incest," I smirk, pulling up my jacket and wrapping to my body loosely. My smirk only grows when Mahiru stops in her tracks to put another scoop into her mouth. She doesn't do anything but her eyes just come up to look at me menacingly but it doesn't affect me since I know I had the upper-hand.

After the strange staring contest, I walk down the benches to go to the track. I stand for a while and start walking until my pace quickens and I start chanting again, "1,2,1,2,1,2!" I stamp my foot down each time at the right time, "1,2!"

In my head, I comb through the moments I've gone through with Yume although I know we've been through few.

_Whether it's her smiling or her determined face, I'll always admire her. Even if it's through her hardships and flaws or her stubbornness..._

**_I want to see her._**

**_I want to see her fall and her prosper. Whatever happens, I do not care. I want to see her weak and her strong._**

My pace comes to a big halt when I see the white finish line on the ground and across from it is that same idiotic rival of mine.

**_Please, grow quickly-_**

"Hey, Ako said you did two laps!"

**-_I think I'm_**

"Rola, good job! You must be tired! I got you some water."

**-_growing impatient already._**

I lean forward, almost kinda fainting on Yume without warning. I step forward when I feel my legs numb and I wrap my arms loosely around Yume. After a moment, I start laughing for no reason and at that moment I know how truly wicked I must be for being so selfish with her, "You'll never beat me in 800m..." I speak carefreely, tightening my grip on her clothes.

She, at first, is uncomfortable. Yume holds me in her embrace weakly, seeming like she wasn't willing to hold me up but soon she tighten her grip too and pulls me up. Poking my nose, she smirks, "Is that a challenge or a loose promise?"

My smile widens but it's a bittersweet one. Still looking into her shoulder, I nod, humming to let her know the answer.

Pushing me off, she pats down her uniform in preparation to run, "You know, I don't have my tracksuit on but that's so I'll have a handicap to help you win." She confidently smiles, stretching and hopping to prepare some more. Yume outstretches her arm to invite me to the jagged starting lines of the track.

I, smugly smirking, take her hand and stand at the first jagged line and she, like me, stands at the second.

In substitute for a people to countdown, Ako cups her hands around her mouth and exerts her energy to shout,

"1!"

_**I'll beat you, Yume.**_

"2!"

_**That's the scary thing. I'm never going to let you win because I'm stubborn. **_

"3!"

_**But I have a feeling you'll try your best to surpass me.**_

"GO!"

_**So come and catch me, Yume.**_

When Ako spreads her arms out in excitement, I dash for the bend ahead. I know conserving energy is important but establishing a strong lead in the race can make that easier without making it hard to stay ahead. Quickly, I take first place from Yume as she emerges into the first lane with me but I'm already metres away from her.

She does not scowl, growl, hiss or scream in annoyance but rather wears that same determined face she has when she's thinking about something. It created a pit in my stomach, worrying me about my lead but I run along.

The first lap is uneventful. When I pass the finish line when I finish the first lap, fatigue starts to hit quickly because of the 800m I had done beforehand. A stitch pains me around the bend, making me slow my pace quickly. Looking behind, Yume is left on the stretch to end her first lap but I am still ahead so running slowly, I head for the next stretch.

At the next stretch after the bend, Yume closes the gap, even more, wearing that same determined face. At this realisation, I start running quicker as if I was being chased but that only worsened the stitch on my left side.

Soon, this proves to be too painful for me to handle so stopping my feet, I heave for breath. This then lets Yume-

_**Wait...**_

-run for the lead.

As she passes, she flicks a proud glance my way then scatters off to finish the last 100m.

I, being the stubborn mule I am, dash off to reach for Yume. My hand subconsciously reaches out as I get closer and closer to Yume.

We're almost neck and neck now and we're a few metres away from the finish line. I, being tired, sighs out the last of my oxygen supply but Yume instead finds the strength to push through and immensely speed up to step through to the finish line without me.

Afterwards, we fall, panting desperately for the air we want so much. Even when I tell her to stand up properly and put her hands on her head, it doesn't give us the satisfaction of a normal resting heart and a slow breathing pattern like usual.

Ako and Mahiru run across the track to approach us.

Ako brings out her bottle and shakes it close to my face, offering it to me and of course, I accept it.

I take large gulps out of the bottle, making sure not to press it to my lips too hard. I close my eyes, feeling some of the water spill out and dripping down but I don't bother with it as the ice-cold feel of the water only makes me enjoy it more. It's a wonder how I didn't even finish it.

Seeing Yume's hasty breaths, I toss the bottle near her to make her notice it quickly. Yume's face lights up as she looks up at me wiping my lips, tantalisingly. That was, of course, on purpose to make her look at me a little bit more.

"You can have... the rest."

She gives me a small smile, sipping the water appreciatively.

Looking at her, I am reminded of her true potential now. Her voice and that stamina and her will and passion for this career path.

Out of nowhere, I laugh like how Ako did before. Both Ako and Mahiru looking me worryingly as they interpret my laugh as defeat kind of laugh but Yume, instead, smiles and giggles along with me.

I clamp my forehead with my palm, relieved,

_**She can beat me. **_

_**She's amazing. **_

_**I can tell her **_

_**about my feelings. **_

"Damn it, Yume! I'll win next time!"

"Work harder then!", we both laugh, strongly and carefreely whilst Ako and Mahiru stared in confusion at the two of us but it didn't matter. I was free to tell her.

She's radiant.

* * *

_Why Rola is content with losing here_

_I guess she wants Yume to prosper greatly and wanted to know if Yume was bothered to put the work into growing herself since Rola made a promise to tell Yume when she had grown._


	9. Chapter 9 - A confrontation

_saaqa"Ah, Rola. You've beaten me again!"_

_"I know, haha-", I pull her slender arms, reeling her in close to myself. She sits comfortably between my arms as I snake my arms around her some more. I breathlessly speak, "Don't I get a reward?"_

_A small giggle flourishes from her chest, warming my face and heart. Her small palms come to my face to close the gap, "I guess so, Rola." Yume's lips come closer, inches away from my own and her eyes, hungry and desperate look to mine for guidance. Soon, both of our eyes start to close, finally taking her lips with mi-_

_..._

"AAAAAA**AAAAAAAAAAAAH!"**, I scream, jumping out of my bed. Surprise, Surprise. No one is here in the room with me but the stars and moon illuminating on the window...

And my phone screen.

I hastily grab the phone, somewhat hoping for the ginger with pink ombre haired girl to message me at 2 AM but to my desperation, it wasn't. It was an unknown phone number of a person who certainly knew me judging by their message which read:

_'Rola-san, I've been messaging you for ages. Are you awake?' _

My instincts start to flare up when I see the '_Are you awake?'_ part; it gave me the chills. Shivers sporadically travel down my spine, making each part of my body tremble with it. "How creepy...", my fingers furiously type, gushing with rage as I wrote each word but... I stopped and recounted my words. My hands then subconsciously drift to the right letters to form a much more kind reply.

_'I'm awake. Who's this?'_

Almost instantaneously as I sent that message, the 'mystery' messager sent back a quick message which answered my suspicions immediately, "Oh..." I form a small 'o' shape as I say that, typing back at a slower pace than before. There was no rush. It was only 2:05 AM now.

_Unknown: 'Mahiru'_

_Rola: 'You gave me a heart attack. Next time, open with your name. I'm guessing Ako-chan gave this number?'_

_Unknown: 'Mm, she did. Anyway, let's talk?'_

_Rola: 'With you? sounds diifficult.'_

_Rola: 'difficult*'_

_Unknown: 'I wanted to hear about you and Yume. Just because.'_

_Rola: 'This has nothing to do with your pining for Ako-chan?'_

_Unknown: 'What?'_

I snicker to myself, only to clasp my hand over my mouth as I hear shuffling from the downstairs. I could tell it was my mother as she often would stay up late. Holding my breath, I hear her walk closer to the stairs but then walk away briskly? I shrug this off, thinking she probably forgot something. Typing quickly, I respond,

_Rola: 'I'm kidding. Why do you wanna talk about Yume?'_

_Unknown: 'I mean, she's all you've been focusing on lately... Ako even told me how you slipped in warmups.'_

My eyebrows furrow in annoyance but relax into a more concerned expression when I realise how much of a distraction Yume proved to be. She certainly was pretty and her hair was quite eye-catching so it was hard to peel my eyes from her.

_Rola: 'I like her, so what?'_

_Unknown: 'I know but that's no excuse to work less. Focus on your work first then make time for Yume later.'_

_Rola: 'Geez, you're rough. I mean, I thought you wanted to talk about Yume and I and not just me.'_

_Rola: 'Hold on, let me change your name.'_

_Mahiru: 'Okay.'_

_Mahiru: 'I know - I just want you to know that first.'_

_Rola: 'Ugh, if you want to talk about it, tell me tomorrow. I'm tired as hell.'_

_Mahiru: 'It's around 2 AM right now so I understand. Have a hefty rest, Rola-san.'_

_Rola: '-chan*'_

_Mahiru: 'Go to sleep.'_

_Rola: 'Alri', mom.'_

Softly, I place my phone onto the table after leaving the last message. Soon, I drift off into a deep sleep, cursing myself for dreaming of Yume before.

* * *

Yawning, I somehow encourage myself to push myself toward the school despite how heavy my body felt. Curse Mahiru... staying up at 2 AM. Even the dreams didn't help, the dreams just made me sleep even deeper. "Who the hell stays up at 2 AM and messages someone about something completely random!", I groan, rubbing my panda-like eyes.

A hand lands on my shoulder, gently and not at all alarming. The person speaks with a concerned voice, "You okay?"

The view of a purple strand of hair and eyes that looked kindly upon mine. Koharu.

"Koharu. Good morning."

"Good morning to you as well... I guess?", she points up at my face, "Did you sleep?" Her eyes bore into me, wanting to find answers. The space between her eyebrows creased, only adding more to her show of concern for me.

Crap. She looks like a puppy.

I scratch my cheek, looking away from her, "Mahiru messaged me at 2 AM. It's cool though because I wasn't feeling so sleepy by then." I nervously laugh, hoping she'd be satisfied with that answer.

She mouths, '2 AM?' Koharu then sighs, shaking off her worry for me easily, "You made me concerned there. I thought you cried at 2 AM."

"Cry? Why would I cry?"

"You lost to Yume - right?"

I look blankly at her for a few seconds until curling my hands into fists into annoyance. Menacingly, I sharply stare into her eyes, "You're kidding me, right? Why would I cry over that? I'm not sensitive."

Koharu coughs, trying to cover up her laugh but I hang onto it quickly, "You're defending yourself so quickly-"

I open my mouth, closing it in embarrassment. I look away silently, walking with Koharu to school after I whisper a small, "Oh shush..." which causes Koharu to smile ever so slightly.

Later on, Mahiru and Ako join us.

"Rola, let's go." With silent urging, she tugs on my uniform to pull me away.

"W-Wait! What are you doi- OW!", I exclaim as she switches to pulling on my ear to drag me away and only grow louder as Koharu and Ako looks over at us with a raised brow. "Why-? Mahiru!"

My eyes lay on a honey-coloured eye as I turn the corner.

_Yume. _

Her eyebrows quirk in a way they look confused as I pulled away from her image.

Finally, Mahiru lets go and turns on her heel to face me. "You needn't make a fuss out of meeting me so early." Her gaze narrows at my face, frowning slightly.

"Well, I'm sorry!" I pull a sarcastic tone, "I was just.. y'know... Getting dragged by the ear!" I sigh, rubbing over the thin of my ear as I see a group of girls eyeing me from a distance. I start to collect myself, sighing out the frustration.

A silence hangs heavy in the air as her gaze drifts from me off to the side. Momentarily, she looks down to her feet contemplating until letting her shoulders drop and stare straight at me.

She breaks it the silence after long while, "What are you playing at with Yume?" Somehow her bitter tone contrasts the soft and gentle nature of her delivery.

It prompts me to stare back at her, stunned but I answer anyway, "She's my rival... and my friend. What do you exactly mean, Mahiru?"

"I mean that Yume is distracting you from even doing decently."

I open my mouth to retort but she shushes me quick.

"Put your feelings aside and think a little more about your work. And when you're able to even fathom the idea of holding a rela- friendship with Yume, then you can start to put your passion in." She claps my shoulder hard and stern. "Understand?"

Again, I open my mouth but this time, nothing comes. I couldn't refuse. I knew I had been slipping.

"... Yes."

Mahiru wordlessly walks off, leaving me in a contemplative silence.

_**Oh goodness. **_


End file.
